Evergreen State offers 'Star Trek' course

Stardate: 1992. The Evergreen State College -- Olympia, Washington. Faculty members Carrie Margolin and Argentina Daley realize that a common interest in the television show Star Trek could translate into a course covering topics as diverse as time travel, theoretical physics and television culture in America. Stardate: 1994. Margolin, who has a doctorate in experimental psychology, and Daley, whose field is English, are collaborating on just such an endeavor. The professors are going "Where No One Has Gone Before" in a class designed to expose students to trends in American history, culture and science through an examination of the changes in Star Trek's themes over the past three decades. "There is enough thematic material in Star Trek to take a good interdisciplinary look at it," Margolin said earlier this week. The new class explores American popular culture, media studies, literature, cognitive psychology and topics in science. "We're not just teaching Star Trek, and we're not just watching episodes," she added. Weekly components of the course include a two-hour program lecture, a two-hour science lecture, a three-hour book seminar and a three-hour screening workshop, plus a one-hour film seminar, according to information provided by Evergreen's Office of College Relations. Additionally, each student elects a four-hour module in either cognitive psychology, screenwriting or animation, Margolin said. Evergreen junior Kristel Wills said she decided to take "Where No One Has Gone Before" because of both its emphasis on screenwriting and science. "It's been a lot more science-based than I expected -- I thought it would be more American culture studies," Wills said. "I'm not a Trekkie, I like to write. I've never done screenwriting, [so] it's very unique to me. "This isn't a class about watching TV, that's not what we're sitting around doing," she added. The reading list that accompanies the class includes classics of science fiction such as Arthur Clarke's 2001: A Space Odessey and Aldus Huxley's Brave New World. The books are meant to complement the Star Trek screenings and stimulate discussion. "We're going to look at the effects of television, pop culture, what would happen if we came into contact with other life forms," she added. "Similar questions would come up in fields like anthropology -- we're all connected. I am not a big Trekkie, [but] I believe in having a broad base to work from." Chance Koehnen, an Evergreen sophomore, said he also enrolled in "Where No One Has Gone Before" because of its cognitive psychology component. "I was worried that I would be stuck in the class with a bunch of Trekkies, [but] most people in the class are really work-oriented and want to learn something," he said. "It was refreshing to find that out. "[The workload] has been pretty moderate, barely stressful," Koehnen added.